Imagine this: you open up your shop one morning, turn on your computers, and a message pops up. It says someone stole all your data and if you don’t pay them thousands of dollars they’ll delete all of it for good. It’s called ransomware, and it sounds like something...
While the last 12 months have not been a great time for most local businesses, several factors have helped auto repair shops weather the storm better than many other industries. That’s true even while many people’s vehicles stayed parked in their driveways for...
A recent study of consumer perception of online reviews shows that reviews continue to grow in importance when it comes to how consumers make decisions. Consider these key points from the survey of more than 1,000 people: 87% of consumers read online reviews for local...
Most companies make their money the right way – by making their customers happy. But there are always a few that find a way to make money off of angry customers. One famous example was a sunglasses company owner who determined in 2010 that negative reviews led to...
If you’re looking to hire an automotive technician, you’ve got a hard job. And unfortunately, it’s not projected to get better any time soon. There has been a shortage of new technicians entering the field since at least 2012, ensuring a tight market for years to...
It’s important for auto repair shop owners, managers and service writers to build a connection with potential customers. Your shop will have more sales, higher margins and happier customers if those customers trust your employees to do what they need to in order to...
This is one of the toughest times in recent memory to be an employee. The biggest reason isn’t mass layoffs or low wages or safety risks. It’s not because of anything related to employment at all. It’s simply because this is one of the toughest times in recent...
Here’s the short answer – by doing everything you should already be doing to optimize your website for regular search. Unfortunately, there are a number of “marketing firms” out there that would have you believe that you should pay them a lot of money to help you...
If you’re a general automotive shop, the odds are pretty good that you’re happy to see customers who need new brake pads and rotors. When we ran an informal survey of our customers asking them which five services they most prefer to do, brakes were in the list for...
